After months of trying to stay out of prison, former Detroit principal Josette Buendia has to start packing her bags and surrender her freedom.

Today, a federal appeals court denied her bond, which means the convicted ex-principal has four days to report to federal prison for her crime: helping a millionaire vendor steal from Detroit Public Schools in exchange for kickbacks.

Buendia, the former principal at Bennett Elementary School, is under a court order to report to prison Sept. 11 to begin her two-year sentence for approving a vendor's fake invoices in exchange for cash and gift cards. She's also been ordered to pay $45,775 in restitution — the amount of her kickbacks -- and has lost part of her pension: $866.20 a month, or $10,394 a year.

Buendia, 52, of Garden City, is one of 13 DPS administrators who were charged in a sensational school corruption case last year that landed all of the accused behind bars. Buendia was the only principal who opted to take her chances at trial and lost. She was convicted in December after just a few hours of jury deliberations.

Her 12 peers -- including 11 principals -- pleaded guilty. So did the accused vendor, millionaire Norman Shy, the central figure in the case who received the stiffest punishment of them all: five years. He was also ordered to pay $2.7 million in restitution. That's how much he billed the school district for supplies he never delivered -- a crime he pulled off with the help of principals like Buendia who signed off on his phony invoices in exchange for money and gift cards.

Since her sentencing in June, Buendia has fought for bond, hoping to stay out of prison while she pursues her appeal. She won a couple of delays. Prosecutors accused her of stalling and trying to avoid the inevitable, and urged the judge to lock her up right away.

In July, after delaying her prison sentence twice, U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh gave Buendia until Sept. 11 to arrange care for her two minor children and report to prison. Buendia appealed to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which denied her request for bond.

In asking for bond, Buendia had argued that she was wrongfully convicted and never allowed to fully explain to jurors her defense, which involves three main arguments:

* Any kickbacks she received from Shy were spent on the kids. Prosecutors said that wasn't relevant; the 6th Circuit agreed.

* She spent more than $65,000 of her own money for her school on things like a graffiti power washer and roof repairs. But she was never allowed to show the receipts at trial. Appeals judges said that was the right call.

* Students' grades and attendance went up at her school while she was there. But she was not allowed to produce those records, either.

Prosecutors argued that evidence of Buendia's guilt was "overwhelming" and that her "Robin Hood defense" — that she used money from the bribes to buy things "for the kids" — wasn't relevant or justifiable.

The 11 other principals who previously pleaded guilty to the same crime as Buendia got sentences ranging from six to 18 months.

Following the convictions, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette went after the pensions of the 13 school administrators who were caught up in the kickback scandal. In July, Buendia became the last of the educators to see her pension forfeited.

According to Schuette, the state will recover $18,466 a month in pensions that were lost by the 13 school employees convicted in the kickback scheme.